The information on this page is provided for private, non-professional, use. To access our full database of worldwide public holidays and bank holidays, under license, for the full years 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, and beyond, please contact us.

USA Public Holidays in 2018

Observance*

Jan. Mon

New Year's Day

Mon

Martin Luther King Jr's Birthday

Feb. Mon

Presidents' Day (widespread in gov. and fin. sectors)

Other

May Mon

Memorial Day Holiday

July 4 Wed

Independence Day

Sep. 3 Mon

Labor Day

Oct. 8Mon

Columbus Day Holiday (widespread in gov. and fin. sectors)

Other

Nov. 12Mon

Veterans Day Holiday (widespread in gov. and fin. sectors)

Other

22 Thu

Thanksgiving Day

Dec. 25 Tue

Christmas Day

Public holidays prior to July 2018, are available under license. To immediately access our full database of worldwide public holidays and bank holidays, under license, for the years 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, and beyond, please contact us.

06 Jan 2018USA Bank Holidays 2022 Announced (The Federal Reserve System-Washington DC) The US Federal Reserve has announced the list of USA bank holidays when the US banks and financial markets will be closed for the calendar year 2022.
•09 Jan 2017USA Bank Holidays 2020-2021 Announced (The Federal Reserve System-Washington DC) The US Federal Reserve has announced the list of USA bank holidays when the US banks and financial markets will be closed for the calendar years 2020 and 2021.
•08 Aug 2015USA Election Day Public Holiday Update (US News and World Report-Washington DC) US populist presidential candidate, Bernie Sanders, has in turn called for election day to be a non-working public holiday in the USA.
•04 Jan 2015USA Bank Holidays 2018-2019 Announced (The Federal Reserve System-Washington DC) The US Federal Reserve has announced the list of USA bank holidays when the US banks and financial markets will be closed for the calendar years 2018 and 2019.
•08 Dec 2014USA Federal Public Sector Holiday December 26 (The White House-Washington DC) US President, Barak Obama, released an Executive Order, dated December 5, once again indicating that "All executive branch departments and agencies of the Federal Government shall be closed and their employees excused from duty on Friday, December 26, 2014, the day after Christmas Day".
•01 Feb 2013USA Bank Holidays 2016-2017 Announced (The Federal Reserve System-Washington DC) The US Federal Reserve has announced the list of USA bank holidays when the US banks and financial markets will be closed for the calendar years 2016 and 2017.
•08 Jan 2013USA Inauguration Public Holiday Ruled-Out (U.S. Office of Personnel Management-Washington DC) The US Office of Personnel Management (OPM) has announced that there would be no paid public sector holiday for the upcoming second inauguration of President Obama.
•29 Aug 2012USA Hurricane Public Holiday Tomorrow (Louisiana's Governor's Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness-Baton Rouge) The Commissioner of Administration of the US State of Louisiana, Paul Rainwater, has announced that Louisiana state government offices would remain closed, statewide, on Thursday, August 30, 2012.
•09 Aug 2011USA Considering Presidents' Day Changes (US News and World Report-Washington DC) US Congressman Frank Wolf (Rep. VA) is leading a movement in the US Congress to restore the Washington's Birthday public holiday to its historical fixed date of February 22.
•05 Feb 2010USA: California Public Sector Holidays Reduction Approved (The San Francisco Chronicle-San Francisco) The governor of the American State of California, Arnold Schwarzenegger, has gotten the green light, from the San Francisco Superior Court, to cut 2 annual public sector holidays.
•More News Updates For the full version of the summarized news items above, and older news items not displayed above, go to the USA public holidays news and updates page, or worldwide public holidays news and updates page, or subscribe to one of our free email newsletters.

Private vs. Public Sector Holidays: According to the Society for Human Resource Management, most American businesses observe the six major American public holidays: New Year's, Memorial Day, Independence Day, Labor Day, Thanksgiving and Christmas, with on average 2 other public holidays. As far as state and local government employees are concerned, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that they get a nationwide average of 11 paid public sector holidays.
•Officially, the U.S. has no national public holidays. The president and congress may only declare public holidays for federal employees and for the District of Columbia. Each state decides which public holidays will be observed within its borders. Having said this, one can be fairly certain that very little business will get done on these listed holidays. When a public holiday for a Day of Mourning is declared, it only applies to these same employees. Banks, stores, businesses, state employees, and schools maintain their normal schedules, although they will fly their flags at half mast. Postal workers are federal employees and are closed on federal holidays.
•The federal rules that apply to New Year's Day, Independence Day, Veterans' Day, and Christmas are as follows. If the holiday falls on a Saturday, then the preceding Friday is the day off work. If the holiday falls on a Sunday, then the federal holiday is the next Monday. This is only for federal employees. Individual states may do as they please.
•Various states have other ways of dealing with these days, some of which are to move fixed-date public holidays to the following Monday, whenever it falls on a Saturday or a Sunday. Some places simply let employees take off a mutually agreed upon day at another time. Each state also may have some other holidays that it celebrates.
•If New Year's Day is a Sunday, then most people other than federal employees will be at work on Monday, Jan. 2nd. Many people take the week off between Christmas and New Year's and so need to be back on Jan. 2.
•Martin Luther King Day supplanted Lincoln's Birthday which used to be a week before Washington's Birthday. Although still legally called Washington's Birthday, it is usually referred to as Presidents' Day now.
•Most people do work on Presidents' Day although many schools have a week off around that time.
•Columbus Day and Veterans' Day are also not strictly observed as public holidays.
•Easter: Good Friday or Easter Monday are still holidays in several states, although not federally. Many stores that are usually open on Sundays, do not open on Easter Sunday.
•The Friday after Thanksgiving is considered to be the biggest shopping day of the year and is a day that most workers not involved in the retail trade have off. This is also the most traveled time of the year for Americans, even more so than Christmas. It is wise to avoid having to travel from Wednesday through Sunday, unless it can't be helped.
•Regardless of which days Christmas and New Year's fall on, many businesses tend to have at least limited hours between these holidays.
•Muslim Dates and Holidays: On August 6, 2006, the ISNA has agreed to use astronomical calculation to predict the dates when Islamic months begin. A five-year calendar can now be found on their website .
•In August of 2005 the United States Congress passed the Energy Policy Act which changes the start dates and the end dates of daylight saving time (DST). When this law goes into effect in 2007, DST will start three weeks earlier on March 11, 2007, and end one week later on November 4, 2007. These dates are referred to in this article as the Extended DST period.
•Cesar Chavez's Birthday: The birthday of the civil rights activist, March 31, is observed in California and Texas, and is an optional public holiday in Arizona and Colorado. However, due to Chavez's longstanding and oft re-iterated emphasis on the importance of education, schools are usually not closed on the date of his birthday.
•USA International Codes US and USA (2 and 3-letter ISO3166 codes) and .us (ICANN national top-level internet domain). • Other Sources of Information The following specialized websites are also a good source of USA information and news: Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (Washington) (USA central bank), UnitedHealthcare Global (security-related world events: terrorist threats, political strife, strikes, criminal activity, aviation incidents and health outbreaks), CIA World Factbook (USA maps, demographics and economic statistics), the IFES (information covering upcoming elections, referenda, electoral structures and voter participation in USA), and Wikipedia (includes USA commemorative dates that are not necessarily public holidays).

Observance : Any entry in the Observance column indicates that, in USA, the holiday may be regional or non-official or limited to certain religious and/or linguistic groups, or begin at a time other than midnight. Note that religious holidays are included only if they are national public holidays, or if the national labour code has specific holiday allowances for employees of specific religions.

DisclaimerIn many parts of
the world, holidays are subject to arbitrary, last minute, changes by local
authorities. While every effort has been made to present an accurate list of
2018 bank holidays, legal holidays and public holidays for USA, we
cannot accept any responsibility for any error or omission in the data presented
above. You are therefore advised to verify
the above dates with the embassy or consulate of USA, before planning any
trip to USA. For last-minute updates to worldwide public holidays, visit
our
worldwide public holidays news and updates page or subscribe to our free
email newsletters.